Apple’s iOS 6 has been out for just over one week and already almost 60 percent of iPhone owners and more than 41 percent of iPad users are using the updated software. The figures from Onswipe are just the latest showing the new version of Apple’s mobile software is being adopted at a record pace.

A survey of 100,000 visitors to website’s using Onswipe’s touch-friendly conversion service indicates that 59.43 percent of the iPhone users are on iOS 6, while 41.3 percent of iPad owners are using the recently-released software. By comparison, it took iOS 5 four weeks to gain 38 percent adoption…

The 60 percent figure (via TechCrunch) follows Apple’s announcement that 100 million people had adopted iOS 6 as of Monday. App developer Pocket had also released iOS 6 adoption figures showing iOS 6 was on 24 percent of devices just 24 hours after its release.

Apple’s decision to offer iOS 6 over-the-air rather than requiring that devices be physically plugged into iTunes is thought to be the major reason for the difference. Whatever the reason for the sharp uptake of iOS 6, it is seen as a plus for Apple and a bit of a rude-awakening for rivals.

The Cupertino, Calif. company should receive increased support by developers, as a result of both the features added in iOS 6 and the software’s rapid adoption. On one hand, developers will quickly push out updates and new apps, knowing that the features will quickly be available to a large percent of iOS users.

The large number of people who have already installed iOS 6 will also encourage developers to risk creating apps for the platform, knowing that there is a sufficient audience already available.

One of the maxims with new software is that you should wait a while for any bugs to be found and corrected. That lesson was reinforced after the flood of user complaints surrounding Apple Maps.

Due to the large number of people who quickly installed the version that ditched Google Maps in favor of Apple’s in-house alternative, a wider group of users had the joy of being on the bleeding-edge of technology. Only now is Apple responding, with CEO Tim Cook publicly apologizing.

The large percent of people who have already adopted iOS 6 has turned the usually-quiet process of issuing a software update on its head.

Dealing with an army of very vocal bug hunters and a CEO publicly apologizing for product frustrations is just an unwelcome side-effect of technology adoption operating at hyper-speed.